i^^HHH 


GIFT  OF 


Contents. 
The  prophecy.  1794.  By  Dr.  Timothy  Dwight.  (Poei 

Assembly  bill  no.  49.  Introduced  by  Mr.  Holden  : 
18,  1865.  An  act  to  establish  an  agricultura 
mechanical  arts  college  in  Sonoma  County. 

Agricultural  college.  Address  of  Hon.  A.  A.  Sa 
Sept.  21,  1865. 

Report  of  the  Committee  cof  the  Senate}  on  '  Sta 
university  to  whom  was  referred  memorial  of  th 
Mechanics  institute  of  San  Francisco.  Feb.  1 


Mining  sdhools  in  the  U.  S.,  by  J.  A.  Church.  1 
(U.C.  p. 2;  ~* 
Jan.  1871 


.IIJ.IJ.K.     owuvv/x*     j.ii/L.iic3     u.     »~>  •  ,     i/jr     v  •     •"•  •     vnniwri.     x 

(U.C._p,.21-22)  (Repr.  fr.  North  American  revi 

•)  • 


^  Report  con  the  Oakland  college  block  property. 
1871. 

*i  Our  state  university  and  th«  aspirant  to  the  pr 
cby  Gustavus  Schultei  1872. 

^  Columbia's  wrath,  not  sparing  the  Regents  of  th 
university  of  California  cby  Gustavus  Schulte 

t9  The  resignation  of  the  Board  of  regents,  (the  e 
members  excepted)  dictated  by  a  sense  of  hono 
duty  cby  Gustavus  Schulte  3  l'B74. 

<LO  Reply  of  D.  C.  Gilman  to  criticisms  of  the  Univ 
California  made  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Patterson, 
Oakland,  c  1873  3  (With  two  letters  concerning 


vll  Report  on  the  water  supply  of  the  Univ.  of  Cali 
cby  Frank  Soule,jr.3  1874. 

v!2  Report  on  the  water  supply  of  the  Univ.  of  Cafci 
cby  a  special  committee  of  the  Regents  3  Dec. 

Report  of  the  Committees  on  pu-  lie  buildings  an 
grounds  of  the  Senate  and  Assembly,  c  1875-76  3 

Majority  and  minority  reports  of  the  Senate  com 
on  education  relative  to  Assembly  bill  no.  37 
c!875-763  (Concerning  abolition  of  Board  of  r 
etc.  3)  . 

'15  Report  of  the  Committee  on  education  to  the  ASP 
22d  session.  c!878:j. 

N/16  Report'  of  the  Senate  committee  on  education.  Fe' 
>  17  Report  of  the  cAssemblvi  committee  on  education 


THE   RESIGNATION 

OF  THE 

BOARD  OF  REGENTS, 

(THE  EX-OFFICIO  MEMBERS  EXCEPTED,) 

DICTATED 

BY  A  SENSE  OF  HONOR  AND    DUTY. 


PEEFACE. 


The  copies  of  a  pamphlet  which  I  published  upon  request  to  wards  the 
close  of  the  Legislative  session  having  been  distributed  and  otherwise 
disposed  of,  I  herewith  issue  a  reprint  of  its  second  part  for  which  there 
has  been  an  increased  demand,  as  it  treated  among  other  university 
matters,  the  agricultural  college  question  in  particular. 

The  storm  which  in  the  recent  past  swept  over  the  Board  of  Regents, 
by  no  means  over  the  infant  institution  itself— has  at  last  subsided. 
The  legislature  for  reasons  obviously  plain  has  not  acted  upon  the  dam- 
aging reports  presented  at  the  very  close  of  the  session  by  three  out  of 
the  four  committees,  the  fourth  having  been  appointed  by  the  direct 
influence  of  the  Regents  themselves.  Despite  this  manifest  proof  of 
forbearance  on  the  part  of  the  Legislature;  despite  the  unexpected  and 
munificent  grant  of  additional  funds  through  the  earnest  support,  even 
of  ths  very  men  who  had  been  heralded  forth  as  enemies  of  the  ill- 
managed  seat  of  learning,  despite  the  intelligible  lesson  the  Regents 
have  been  taught,  they  still  persist  in  disregarding  the  wish  of  the 
people,  so  repeatedly,  so  strongly  expressed,  and  in  secret  meetings — 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  democratic  institutions — dispose  of  the  funds 
which  are  copiously  drawn  from  the  taxpayers  pockets.  A  storm  of 
indignation  seems  to  be  again  gathering  around  them.  Various  organs 
of  the  press  again  begi  to  proclaim — latest  among  these  the  "Call" 
of  April  llth.,  the  "  Grass  Valley  Union"  of  April  14th  and  the  "Oak- 
land News"  of  April  17th — "that  the  secret  meetings  of  the  Regents 
throw  about  their  transactions  an  air  of  mystery  and  raise  suspicions 
that  may  even  be  groundless;  that  secrecy  is  injurious  to  the  university, 
since  its  success  depends  on  Ihe  popular  will." 

There  is  indeed  no  doubt  whatever  that  some  of  the  serious  errors,  in 
the  past  committed  by 'the  Board  would  have  been  avoided,  had  not 
through  the  exclusion  of  reporters  and  the  people,  all  deliberative  and 
advisory  participation  on  the  part  of  the  press  become  an  impossibil- 
ity, prior  to  the  adoption  of  most  important  measures. 

With  respect  to  the  agricultural  college  alone  disastrous  results  may 
yet  follow.  But  few  are  aware  that  the  congressional  committee  on 
education  is  actually  examining  how  the  agricultural  college  funds 
have  in  the  various  states  been  applied.  We  in  California,  or  rather 
the  Regents,  have  not  only  not  applied  these  funds  for  a  de facto  agri- 
cultural college  but  even  misapplied  some.  More  than  this,  should  the 
Morrill  bill  now  before  congress  become  a  law,  the  university  may  lose 
another  $30,000  a  year,  since  in  accordance  with  that  bill  the  secretary 
of  the  interior  must  hj»ve  proof,  that  the  provisions  of  the  law  of  1862 
have  been  complied  with  in  the  respective  states. 

Indeed  a  sense  of  honor  and  duty,  not  incompatible  with  true  digni- 
ty should  induce  the  Regents,  theex-officio  members  excepted,  to  re- 
sign, that  is,  the  non-representative  members  of  the  Board  make  room, 
for  the  appointment  of  representative  members  in  the  spirit  of  practi- 
cal common  sense,  as  has  been  elucidated  on  the  succeeding  pages. 
For  the  consummation  of  such  a  change  in  the  interest  of  the  youthful 
university,  not  the  people  ol  California  alone,  but  also  the  professors 
and  students  will  hold  the  Regents  in  grateful  remembrance. 

In  this  matter  the  people  look  for  aid  to  Gov.  Booth,  ex-officio  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board. 

OAKLAND,  April  19,  1874. 


I  approach  with  reverence,  mingled  with  fear  and  shame,  and 
yet  with  hope,  the  youthful  institution  which  we  all  have 
watched  from  the  cradle,  all  have  cherished  and  still  cherish, 
which  we  imprudently  and  inconsiderately  entrusted  to  guard- 
ians too  ample  in  number,  without  pay,  and  burdened  with 
their  own  official,  professional  or  business  cares,  who  have  in- 
deed not  reared  a  healthy,  vigorous  youth  as  their  adulators 
and  abettors,  the  mocker  and  cynic  alike  would  have  us  believe ; 
but  in  lieu  thereof  a  feeble,  sickly,  friendless  child  ;  friendless 
and  estranged  through  haughty,  law-defying,  incapable, 
Star-Chamber  rule !  the  friendless  child,  to  whom  the 
people  agreed  to  stand  sponsor,  keeper  and  sustainer  ;  and 
who,  without  the  timely  aid  of  the  over-burdened  State,  its 
mother,  would  have  before  this  died  from  weakness  and  ex- 
haustion,— the  State  University  of  California  in  fine,  ordained 
one  day  to  be  the  august  and  crowning  fabric  of  the  widely 
ramified  educational  system  of  the  Pacific  Slope. 

The  spirit  of  inquiry  by  Columbia's  wrath  aroused  through- 
out the  land,  also  awoke  in  the  legislative  halls  at  Sacramento. 
It  stepped  abroad,  and  spared  not  the  State  University  of  Cal- 
ifornia. 

It  having  been  shown  that  under  a  democratic  form  of  gov- 
ernment, every  citizen,  although  he  refrain  from  becoming  a  pro- 
fessional politician,  has  sacred  political  duties  to  perform,  ev- 
ery one  in  his  own  sphere  of  activity,  I  have  resoived  not  to  be 
found  derelict  in  mine,  in  that  of  Education. 

Education — popular  education — is  a  momentous  question  of 
State,  under  any  form  of  government.  It  would  seem  to  be 
the  most  momentous  under  a  government  instituted  and  con- 
trolled bj  the  whole  people  ;  one  by  the  side  of  which  other 
popular  questions  sink  into  comparative  insignificance,  under- 
lying as  it  does  the  political,  and  thence  all  others,  yea,  the 
very  life  and  existence  of  a  democratic  commonwealth.  Edu- 
cation is — I  repeat  what  I  elsewhere  have  said,  and  cannot  be 


said  too  often — it  is  the  sanctum,  of  which  every  school,  high 
or  low,  forms  an  integral  part ;  aye,  the  sanctum  sanctorum,  of 
the  people.  It  at  least  should  be  held  intact  from  the  polluting 
breath  of  party  and  party  faction,  the  baneful  touch  of  favor- 
itism and  incapacity,  from  hateful  egoism  and  corruption  ;  It, 
the  most  vital  part  through  which  circulates  the  quickening 
blood  of  our  republican  organism  ;  our  heart  indeed,  whose 
normal  or  abnormal  throbbing  brings  with  it  Life  or  Death! 

In  dealing  with  university  matters,  it  is  indeed  not  nay  pur- 
pose to  offer  additional  evidence  whether  or  not  the  State,  or, 
rather,  we,  the  tax  payers,  were  defrauded  in  the  erection  of 
the  College  of  Letters  ;  whether  or  not,  of  the  $20,000  said  to 
have  been  spent  for  the  grading  and  laying  out  of  the  College 
grounds,  not  more  than  $10,000  to  the  utmost  have  actually 
been  spent  :  whether  or  not  a  calcium  light  thrown  upon  the 
structure,  bearing  the  name  of  Agricultural  College — the  cost 
of  which  is  said  to  have  been  above  $200,000 — would  lay  bare 
irregularities  similar  to  those  in  connection  with  the  College  of 
Letters  :  whether  or  not  the  Agricultural  College  lands  were 
chiefly  taken  up  by  a  Eing  in  the  Board  of  Regents,  subsequent 
to  Friedlander's  offer  of  $5  per  acre  for  the  whole  had  been  re- 
jected. But  I  do  p*$pose  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  Legis- 
lature and  the  people  to  certain  potent  matters  connected  with 
the  State  University,  of  an  educational  bearing,  which  in  part 
have  not  fallen  within  the  Joint  Committee's  range  of  investi- 
gation. I  regret  that  the  late  appearance  of  the  Kegents'  re- 
port, answering  the  proposed  questions,  and  the  approximate 
close  of  the  legislative  session,  do  not  permit  me  to  elucidate 
at  length,  and  fully. 

To  know  of  evils  and  ignore  them,  would  be  unwise ;  it  would 
be  more  so  to  indulge  in  the  hypocritical  belief  that  such  con- 
cealments would  operate  beneficially  in  behalf  of  the  embar- 
rassed institution.  To  honestly  lay  them  bare,  with  but  one 
aim — that  of  benefiting  the  institution,  and  without  any  desire 
of  reflecting  upon  the  private  character  of  men,  who  offered 
their  time  and  labor,  without  the  expectation  of  any  reward, 


however  little  the  time,  however  inappropriate  the  labor  of 
some  may  have  been — that  is,  as  I  have  already  stated,  the 
duty  of  every  citizen  and  tax-payer  of  the  State. 

Whether  or  not  the  focus  of  my  vision  has  been  correctly  set, 
may  be  deduced  from  my  having  been  an  instructor,  (in  natu- 
ral science  and  language, )  twenty-two  years  ;  during  which  pe- 
riod of  time  I  have  had  ample  opportunities  of  observing  the 
working  of  various  educational  systems,  the  mode  of  organiza- 
tion and  direction  of  the  common  public  schools,  high  schools 
and  universities  of  Germany,  where  teaching  is  a  profession 
and  an  art  ;  of  France,  England,  and  other  leading  countries  in 
Europe  ;  of  North  and  South  America,  and  some  of  the  Eng- 
lish colonies,  above  all  Australia,  where,  as  in  the  United 
States,  popular  education  has  made  more  rapid  strides  than  in 
the  mother  country,  England  herself.  During  that  long  and 
varied  experience  I  have  never  known  of  any  public  or  private 
seminary  of  learning,  whether  under  an  absolute,  constitution- 
ally monarchical,  or  republican  government ;  whether  influ- 
enced by  an  enlightened,  liberal  spirit  of  progress  and  reform, 
or  a  mind  enslaving,  Jesuitic  spirit  of  conservatism,  or  even 
regress,  the  direction  of  which  was  so  autocratic,  defying  and 
deaf  to  the  counseling  and  warning  voice  of  the  press  and  the 
people  ;  so  cumbersome,  inappropriate  an  d  inefficient  an  or- 
ganization, as  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  State  University  of 
California. 

What  would  we,  "the  practical  people  of  the  United  States," 
suppose — we  who  are  by  other  nations  commonly  looked  upon 
as  practical  par  excellence — were  a  number  of  our  fellow  citizens 
to  found  a  settlement  in  an  unoccupied  district,  and  for  the 
building  of  a  town,  its  churches  and  schools,  for  laying  out 
farms,  for  working  adjacent  mines — were  to  select  a  board  of 
directors  from  among  lawyers,  dealers,  money-brokers  and 
speculators,  instead  of  architects,  civil  and  mining  engineers, 
builders,  carpenters,  teachers,  scientific  and  practical  farmers, 
men  all  practically  acquainted  with  what  they  would  have  to 
build,  lay  out  and  direct,  adding,  wisely,  to  their  num- 
ber one  able  lawyer,  and  certainly  also  an  able  financier  ? 


Would  not  the  most  impractical  among  impractical  Americans 
— if  there  be  any — condemn  such  an  unheard  of  proceeding  as 
a  flagrant  violation  of  established  rule,  a  palpable  disregard  of 
common  sense  ?  Do  we  not  all  know  that  in  all  we  build,  in  all 
we  erect  and  elevate,  be  it  in  the  material  or  mental  world,  the 
professional,  and  thus  experienced builder  is  most  Jit  to  build  or  direct? 
Was  not  common  sense  palpably  disregarded  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  State*University  ?  In  that 
high  seat  of  learning  we  meant  to  form,  to  elevate,  to  build 
men  of  letters,  scientists,  astronomers,  geologists,  chemists, 
civil  and  mining  engineers,  architects,  experts  in  fine  and  me- 
chanic arts,  the  scientific  and  practical  agriculturist,  etc.  Whom 
have  we  deputed  to  direct  and  guide  ?  Men  already  elevated 
and  built  up  in  such  departments  of  learning  and  skill  ?  the 
man  of  letters,  the  scientist,  chemist,  civil  or  mining  engineer, 
the  expert  in  mechanic  art,  the  scientific  and  practical  farmer  ? 
•No  !  We  have — O  temporal  0  mores! — we  have  deputed  men, 
incognito  all  in  these  departments,  lawyers  chiefly,  representa- 
tives of  litigation,  tricks  and  quibs;  merchants,  money-dealers 
and  speculators  ;  the  solid  men  of  San  Francisco,  yea  the  solid 
men  of  gold  and — brass  !  most  all  absorbed  in  the  brazen  pursuit 
of  money — pelf  ;  their  very  secretary,  as  I  further  on  shall 
show,  the  secretary  of  mining  and  stock-speculating  companies ; 
their  very  office  in  the  same  suite  of  rooms  with  those  compa- 
nies ;  and  one  and  all  without  one  grain  of  Peabody-ism  in 
their  money  solidity  to  benefit  the  struggling,  youthful  institu- 
tion entrusted  to  their  care  and  keeping. 

Common  sense  dictates  that  there  be  an  immediate  change  in 
the  supreme  directorship  of  the  State  University  of  Califor- 
nia. The  power  of  the  academic  Senate,  until  recently  ab- 
sorbed by  the  Board  of  Eegents,  should  be  enlarged,  the  latter 
re-organized  and  the  number  of  regents  reduced.  Better  still 
would  seem  to  be  a  State  Board  of  Education,  composed  of  a 
small  number  of  paid  members,  selected  from  among  solid  men 
also,  the  solid  men  of  mind  and  skill,  prompted  by  the  dic- 
tates of  man's  higher  nature  ;  practically  acquainted  with  what 


10 

they  should  have  to  build,  direct  and  guide,  always  in  harmony 
with  the  working  builders,  the  able  and  zealous  Faculty. 

What  disaster  will  follow,  if  we  disregard  the  common  sense 
maxim  that  "builders  are  most  fit  to  build,  or  direct  building," 
is  strikingly  demonstrated  in  the  erection  of  the  new  City  Hall 
of  San  Francisco. 

In  briefly  tracing  the  history  of  the  University  we  find  that 
the  first  fatal  error  on  the  part  of  the  Board  was  the  nomina- 
tion of  a  President  who  enjoyed  not  the  full  and  undivided 
confidence  of  all  parties.  Without  weighing  the  qualification 
or  non-qualification  of  Gen.  McClellan  for  the  Presidential 
Office,  there  seemed  to  be  something  repugnant  and  incon- 
gruous in  the  thought,  of  a  soldier,  the  representative  of  blood 
and  carnage,  presiding  over  an  institution  of  peace  and  peace- 
ful advancement  in  the  march  of  humanity.  Although  Gen. 
McClellan  declined  to  accept  the  leadership  of  the  University, 
the  infant  Institution  through  his  nomination  received  a  rude 
shock,  as  within  its  range  fell  the  all-important  question  of 
private  endowments.  Both,  unbiased  Democrats  and  Kepub- 
licans,  friends  of  the  University  were  unanimous  in  censuring 
the  Board  for  ignoring  the  fact  that  no  University  can  flourish 
with  State  aid  alone,  for  ignoring  the  prime  necessity  of  uniting 
with  themselves  the  wealthy  of  both  great  parties.  More  than 
five  years  have  elapsed  since  the  University  was  founded ;  no 
endowment  of  note,  so  common  in  other  universities,  has  been 
made,  nor  have  the  regents,  among  whom  many  are  wealthy, 
contributed  anything  worth  recording,  save  the  legacy  of  land 
by  a  deceased  member.  However  repugnant  was  to  some  of 
the  people  the  nomination  for  the  presidency  of  a  soldier  of 
doubtful  fame,  the  enactment  of  compulsory  instead  of  optional 
attendance  upon  military  drill,  not  only  by  the  regular  students  but 
even  by  the  students  at  large  was  still  more  so.  Had  there  been  es- 
tablished a  military  department,  and  not  the  entire  University  with 
the  various  colleges  been  transformed  into  a  second  West  Point, 
the  arrangement  might  have  been  hailed  as  wholesome  and  ju- 


11 

dicious.*  Now  all  the  students  are  forced  into  a  military  straight- 
jacket;  now  are  kept  away  the  true  student  of  high  aspirations, 
the  searcher  in  the  vast  expanse  of  nature,  the  reveler  in  the 
domain  of  thought  and  bold  expounder  of  new  truths ;  the  mod- 
est though  ardent  student  in  fact  on  whose  back  a  tinseled  uni- 
form is  torture,  to  whose  manly  dignity  is  repulsive  the  mere 
playing  at  soldier;  the  parading  through  the  streets,  as  has 
been  done  in  Oakland,  with  boyish  ostentation.  While  empty 
heads  who  do  not  go  for  study  will  eagerly  don  the  showy  garb 
to  strut  upon  the  lawns  and  streets,  the  true  student  will  object 
to  be  forced  into  the  ranks  preceded  by  a  discordant  brass  band 
disturbing  the  peaceful  air  with  not  a  small  amount  of  super 
accurate  sharps  and  flats,  (school  bands  can  never  reach  any 
degree  of  perfection,)  forcing  smiles  of  pity,  half  suppressed 
upon  the  lineaments  of  the  passer  by  and  wounding  to  the  quick 
the  dignity  of  him  who,  by  the  help  of  his  Alma  Mater,  seeks 
not  ostentatious  show,  but  truths  and  laws  as  yet  unfathomed 
and  unknown. 

A  flagrant  disregard  of  the  law,  seriously  affecting  the  man- 
agement, the  standard  and  moral  tone  of  the  University  was 
manifested  in  connection  with  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Board; 
the  Secretary,  although  receiving  the  salary  of  $3,600,  subse- 
quently $3,000  per  annum,  was  permitted  to  act  in  the  same 
capacity  of  Secretary  for  the  Raymond  &  Ely  Mining  Company, 
and,  it  is  said,  other  companies,  the  Board  of  Regents  and  the 
flrst  named  company  occupying  the  same  suite  of  office  rooms. 
He  and  the  office  thus  remained  in  San  Francisco  in  direct  vio- 
lation of  Article  66  of  the  organic  law,  which  stipulates  that  "the 
Secretary  shall  reside  and  keep  his  office  at  the  seat  of  the  Univer- 
sity,"  which  seat,  until  .September  last,  was  Oakland.  Howmin- 


*Tbe  stipulation  in  Section  6  of  the  University  Act,  reading  thus:  "  In  order  to  ful- 
fill the  requirements  of  said  Act  of  Congress  all  able  bodied  male  students  of  the  Uni- 
versity, whether  pursuing  full  or  partial  courses  in  any  colleges  or  as  students  at 
large,  shall  receive  instruction  and  discipline  in  military  tactics,"  is  a  violent  and 
unjustifiable  misinterpretation  of  said  Act  of  Congress  (July  2, 1862),  which  includes 
the  study  of  military  tactics  in  one  college  only,  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  Me- 
chanic Arts,  having  no  reference  whatever  to  the  r?ollege  of  Lettors  or  any  other  col 
lege  forming  part  of  a  university. 


12 

utely  small  the  time  must  have  been  that  was  left  to  the  Secretary 
for  the  performance  of  the  multifarious  duties  comprising  a 
whole  section — an  entire  page  of  the  organic  laws;  how 
minutely  small  for  thought,  attention  and  devotion  in  behalf  of 
the  distant  educational  sanctum,  may  be  inferred  from  the 
purely  materialistic  nature  of  mining  and  stock  operations,  the 
endless  speculation  and  excitement,  the  danger,  anxiety  and  ab- 
sorption of  thought  and  time  through  the  complexity  and 
intricarj  of  honest  or  disoiihest  mining  and  stock  machinations. 
Whether  or  not  it  be  founded  on  fact  that  one  or  several  regents 
were  interested  in  the  company,  etc.,  is  immaterial.  It  is,  how- 
ever, generally  known  that  the  Board  held  its  meetings  in  the 
Secretary's  office,  meetings  from  which,  contrary  to  the  prac- 
tice of  other  educational  boards  were  debarred  the  representatives 
of  the  press,  and  the  people.  Thence  was  set  an  example  to  the 
Professors,  instructors  and  students  of  respectful  observance  of 
the  law,  of  rules  and  regulations,  of  strict  attention  to  duty; 
thence  were  inspired  our  sons  and  daughters  with  love  for  the 
attributes  of  man's  higher  nature,  thence  directed  to  the  nobler 
walks  of  life. 

The  statement  made  by  President  Oilman  before  the  Legis- 
lature at  Sacramento,  tending  to  prove,  if  I  have  been  correctly 
informed,  that  the  agricultural  colleges  in  America,  France  and 
Germany  have  disappointed  the  hopes  of  their  friends,  leads 
me  to  review,  in  brief,  agricultural  colleges  generally,  while  I 
dwell  specially  on  matters  connected  with  the  establishment  of 
an  Agricultural  College  in  the  University. 

The  agricultural  interest,  important  in  any  country,  is  the  su- 
preme interest  in  the  United  States.  Congress,  conscious  of 
this  and  desirous  of  raising  the  standard  of  agriculture,  both 
scientifically  and  practically  considered,  as  well  as  that  of  all 
branches  of  industry  made  to  each  State  a  munificent  donation  of 
public  lands  in  aid  of  "colleges  for  the  benefit  of  agriculture 
and  the  mechanic  arts."  The  State  of  California  having  ac- 
cepted the  donation,  in  Section  4  of  an  Act  of  the  Legislature  to 
create  and  organize  the  University  of  California,  approved 


13 

March  23d,  1868,  distinctly  ordained  that  the  College  of  Agri- 
culture he  first  established  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Univer- 
sity; *  *  *  *  having  for  its  object  practical  education  in 
agriculture.  Section  5  provides  that  the  College  of  Mechanic 
Arts  be  next  established;  *  *  *  *  that  the  Board  of  Re- 
gents shall  always  bear  in  mind  that  the  College  of  Agriculture 
and  the  College  of  Mechanic  Arts  are  an  especial  object  of  their 
care  and  superintendence,  and  that  they  shall  be  considered 
and  treated  as  entitled  primartty  to  the  use  of  the  funds  donated 
for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  said  Act  of  Congress." 
Section  15  stipulates  that  a  competent  person  who  is  a  practical 
agriculturist  hy  profession  competent  to  superintend  the  work- 
ing of  the  agricultural  farm  and  of  sufficient  scientific  acquire- 
ments to  discharge  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  the  Board  shall 
be  chosen  by  said  Board  of  Regents ." 

Although  Section  7  of  the  same  act  empowered  the  Regents 
to  organize  at  once — as  they  duly  did — the  full  course  of  the 
College  of  Letters,  in  order  to  allow  the  College  of  California  to 
immediately  convey  the  residue  of  its  property  donated  to  the 
State  for  the  benefit  of  the  University  and  to  go  out  of  exist- 
ence. The  Act  did  not  empower  the  Regents  to  absorb,  as  it 
were,  by  the  resuscitated  College  of  California  the  agricultural 
department  in  the  new  State  University.  Every  one  of  the 
above  clear  and  definite  provisions  was  disregarded  with  re- 
spect to  the  Agricultural  College,  which  this  day  non  est,  al- 
though the  University  has  been  five  years  in  operation.  The 
Agricultural  College  funds  were,  as  I  shall  show,  in  part  di- 
verted for  purposes  which  lowered  still  more  the  low  standard 
of  the  intended  high  temple  of  learning;  the  University  lands 
in  the  vicinity  suitable  for  agricultural  purposes  were  bartered 
away  and  created — the  farce  seems  incredible — an  ideal,  travel- 
ing instead  of  a  real  stationary  Agricultural  College.  It  would 
seem  still  more  incredible  that  the  Regents  proposed  in  1872  to 
bestow  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Agriculture  upon  a  graduate, 
to  which  the  University  students  objected  by  a  written  protest 
forwarded  to  the  Board.  The  ruthless  contempt  of  law  in  con- 


14 

uection  with  the  agricultural  department  is  such  as  to  almost 
defy  the  pen  to  give  it  expression;  save  the  suspected  frauds  in 
the  erection  of  the  College  of  Letters,  nought  more  than  this  has 
brought  into  disrepute  the  star  chamber  Board  of  Eegents. 
How  were  the  funds  derived  from  the  sale  of  Agricultural 
College  lands  in  part  diverted  from  Iheir  proper  use  ?  The 
Regents,  in  direct  contravention  of  Article  79  of  the  organic 
law,  forbidding  the  adoption  of  the  dormitory  system,  that  is, 
the  lodging  or  boarding  of  students,  despite  the  strenuous  re- 
monstrances of  the  Faculty,  the  students  and  the  press  organ- 
ized and  incorporated  with  the  University,  as  an  integral  part,  a 
boarding  school  for  boys,  a  kindergarten,  as  the  students,  the 
Oaklanders  and  the  Alta  first  gave  it  at  the  time,  then  lowering, 
as  I  have  said,  the  low  standard  of  the  institution,  being  be- 
sides antagonistic  to  the  true  character  of  any  university  and 
interfering  with  the  interests  of  private  preparatory  schools  in 
Oakland  and  elsewhere,  which  schools,  taxpaying  contributors 
themselves  to  the  University,  were  and  are  now  with  the  public 
High  Schools,  its  natural  feeders,  and  as  such  not  to  be  under- 
mined, but  to  be  encouraged  and  increased  in  number.  It  is 
cognizant  i<^  all  that  the  President  of  the  University, 
the  head  of  the  academic  senate,  an  experienced  educator,  the 
only  fit  and  trusty  referee  and  counselor  of  the  Board,  was,  as 
usual,  debarred  from  its  meeting  when  the  measure  was  adopt- 
ed, as  he  was  not  what  Presidents  in  other  Universities  are — an 
ex-officio  member  of  the  Board  of  Regents.  For  the  grounds 
and  buildings  of  a  decaying  private  school  to  be  converted  into 
the  kindergarten  were  paid  $112,476  25;  of  that  amount  s23,- 
315  51  were  derived  from  the  sale  of  Agricultural  College 
lands.  More  than  this,  112  acres  of  land  adjacent  to  the  Uni- 
versity site,  suitable  for  an  aboretum  and  forestry  or  other  ag- 
ricultural purposes  were  bartered  away.  Nay,  $20,000  were 
paid  for  a  vacant  block  adjoining  the  Bray  ton  School,  for  which 
there  was  no  imaginable  use,  being  vacant  and  unoccupied  this 
day.  In  the  mean  while  the  Agricultural  College  grounds 
and  farm  were  totally  neglected,  for  want  of  funds  we  were 
told ! !  Not  a  seed  for  agricultural  plants  and  grasses  was  put 


15 

in  the  ground,  not  a  tree  planted  for  the  culture  of  fruit  and 
berries,  no  grounds  laid  out  for  economic  botany,  not  a  green- 
house or  propagating  house  erected,  no  garden,  no  Agricultural 
College  Professors  appointed.  "We  are  informed  on  page  68  of 
the  report  recently  published  by  the  regents  that  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Agriculture  was,  in  1872,  authorized  to  employ  the 
services  of  a  competent  gardener,  and  to  proceed  with  the  con- 
struction of  a  propagating  house ;  but  we  are  not  informed  why 
there  is  no  gardener  and  no  propagating  house.  The  kinder- 
garten did  not  prove  a  bed  of  roses  to  the  Eegents — it  proved  a 
disturbing  agent,  an  unwieldy  weight,  incubus  of  debts,  deficits 
rubs  and  frictions.  It  is  no  more,  to  the  delight  of  students  and 
Professors,  and  not  less  to  that  of  the  misguided  Kegents,  un- 
experienced in  educational  administration.  Although  we  have 
to  pay  interest  on  an  unpaid  mortgage  of  $50,000,  we  have  the 
consolation  of  knowing  that  the  property  in  question,  if  sold, 
would  probably  realize  the  $112,000  it  has  cost  us.  What  was, 
however,  the  true  cause  of  the  incorporation  of  that  boarding- 
school  with  the  University,  necessitating  the  inve- tment  of  a 
sum  so  extraordinary  large  ?  Was  the  purchase  of  grounds  and 
buildings  indispensably  necessary  to  afforda  dditional  accomo- 
dation  to  the  University  proper  at  Oakland?  By  no  means! 
The  University  was  but  temporarily  located  there.  Brayton 
Hall  or  any  other  building  of  the  private  school  could  have 
been  had  at  low  rent.  If  the  whispers  rustling  at  the  time 
through  the  classic  groves  of  Oakland  interpreted  correctly,  the 
true  cause  was  a  desire,  an  earnest  and  persistent  desire  of  at 
least  one  member  of  the  Board  of  Kegents  to  dispose  advan- 
tageously for  the  owners  of  the  Brayton  estate  adjoining  the  Uni- 
versity with  the  buildings  holding  the  school .  The  Kegent  met 
at  first  with  a  determined  opposition  to  his  plans  on  the  part  of 
his  colleagues.  We  heard  from  the  lips  of  the  Rev.  O.  P.  Fitz- 
gerald himself,  then  a  member  of  the  Board,  that  the  Senator 
Regent  would  not  succeed  in  convincing  them  of  the  desirable- 
ness of  purchasing  the  said  estate,  latter,  although  defeated  on 
two  occasions,  persistently  returned  to  the  charge  and  finally  was 


16 

victorious.  He  passed  in  the  fortuitous  capacity  of  Regent  and 
Legislator  the  enabling  Act  to  establish  the  department  and  pur- 
chase the  goodly  estate  and  declining  school ;  in  the  equal  for- 
tuitous capacity  of  Regent,  Committee-man  and  purchaser  did 
purchase  the  goodly  estate  and  declining  school ;  in  the  not  less 
fortuitous  capacity  of  Regent,  legal  adviser  of  the  owners,  and 
vendor,  did  vend  .the  goodly  estate  and  declining  school,  and 
finally  for  the  manifold  and  intricate  duties  as  Legislator,  Re- 
gent, Legal  Adviser,  Purchaser  and  Vendor,  we  are  now  told 
received  no  u  pay."  To  ascertain  whether  or  not  this  be  so, 
whether  or  not  he  received  any  equivalent  whatever,  even  for 
professional  services  rendered  would  now  be  a  thankless  task, 
nay  an  uncharitable  endeavor,  since  he  has  in  the  cold  earth 
found  his  resting  place.  We  should  henceforth  remember  only 
the  good  he  has  done  for  the  University  in  other  respects,  the 
manliness  with  which  he  acknowledged  a  few  days  before  his 
death,  (see  Inauguration  of  President  Oilman,  Oakland  Daily 
NewS)  November  8,  1872),  "  that  mistakes  had  been  made  by 
the  Regents,  but  that  they  were  mistakes  of  the  head,  not  of  the 
heart." 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  that  Governor  Booth,  surely  a  true 
friend  of  education  and  of  the  University,  in  view  of  the  evi- 
dent and  censurable  missapplication  of  funds,  vetoed  in  1872  the 
bill  appropriating  an  additional  $300,000  of  the  people's  money? 
Is  it  surprising  that  he,  as  I  have  been  informed  by  one  of  tlie 
Regents,  had  conceived  strong  and  it  seems  justifiable  preju- 
dices against  the  Board,  when  he  by  virtue  of  his  office  became 
its  president;  prejudices,  which  to  judge  from  his  rare  presence 
at  the  meetings  of  the  Board,  do  not  seem  to  have  fully  sub- 
sided? 

Having,  I  presume,  satisfactorily  established  the  fact  that 
the  Regents  unlawfully  diverted  funds,  in  appending  the  incon- 
grous  University  Kindergarten,  by  which  measure  also — as  a 
tuition  fee  was  in  it  enforced — their  '  'Free  University  "  became 
a  ludicrous  anomoly,  in  their  mouth  a  hypocritical  boast,  and 
on  the  lips  of  the  stranger  a  mortifying  sneer;  having,  moreover, 
demonstrated  that  the  Board  in  the  mean  time  forgetful  of  their 


17 

duty  to  establish,  according  to  law,  a  real,  stationary  and  work- 
ing agricultural  college,  which  would  have  beyond  any  doubt  at- 
tracted students  for  the  University  then  almost  empty,  I  will  now 
proceed  to  show  how  they  rose  on  the  wings  of  fancy  and  found- 
ed the  ideal,  ubiquitous  and  traveling  College  of  Agriculture  of 
the  State  University  of  California.  They  had  evidently  heard 
of  the  German  "Kindergarten"  but  not  of  the  German  "Lie- 
big' ';  thus  one  of  the  many  disciples  of  Themis  in  the  Board,* 
who  undoubtedly  also  heard  of,  and  it  may  be  read,  Don  Quix- 
ote, one  day  it  seems  withdrew  to  the  remotest  recess  of  his  of- 
fice, and  there  musing,  hatched  the  following  ludicrously  im- 
practicable resolution,  which  was  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
Regents .  By  it  they  inadvertently  commanded  the  able  and 
ever  active  Carr,  the  one  Professor  of  Agriculture,  the  only  agri- 
cultural reality,  if  I  may  so  say,  now  at  Berkeley — to  mount  the 
famous  charger  Eosinante  and  re-enact  in  practical  America  the 
ingenious  impossibilities  of  that  famous  hidalgo,  "  Don  Quixote 
de  la  Mancha^  I  reproduce  the  resolution  in  full  from  my 
brief  treatise,  entitled  "  The  State  University  of  California 
particularly,  and  the  Educational  Systems  of  America  and  Ger- 
many comparatively,"  which  was  published  in  January,  1871. f 

"  '  Resolved — That  in  order  to  extend  the  advantages  of  the  Agricultu- 
ral College  of  the  University  to  the  largest  number  of  citizens  possible, 
and  especially  to  persons  practically  interested  in  farming,  fruit-culture, 
wine-making,  wool  growing  and  stock-raising,  the  Professor  of  Agri- 
culture, Agricultural  Chemistry  and  Horticulture,  shall  visit,  as  far  as 
possible,  all  the  agricultural  centres  of  population  in  the  State,  and  in 
every  convenient  neighborhood,  where  suitable  accommodations  can  be 
obtained,  deliver  one  or  more  lectures,  illustrated  where  practicable, 

*  I  beg  it  to  be  understood  that  I  entertain  no  ill  feelings  against  the  profession  of  law;  on 
the  contrary  my  only  son  is  intended  to  become  a  lawyer.— G.  S. 

t  That  treatise  was  submitted  to  the  Board  of  Regents,  and  if  the  Oakland  News  was  correctly 
informed,  referred  to  the  Committee  of  Instruction,  where  it  died  a  natural  death,  unnoticed 
as  were  then  and  have  ever  been  by  the  Board,  the  honest  criticism  and  counsel  offered  by  the 
press,  or  coming  from  any  other  source  whatsoever.  Although  they  did  not  weigh  in  behalf  of 
the  young  University,  my  views  on  progressive  education,  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  finding  that 
among  the  many  organs  of  the  daily  and  weekly  press  who  noticed  them,  the  San  Francis*  o  Ex- 
aminer, the  favored  organ  at  the  time  of  the  larger  number  of  the  Regents,  while  not  subscrib. 
ing  to  all  I  had  advanced,  devoted  to  their  analysis  in  its  issue  of  January  24,  1871,  with  credit- 
able fairness  and  candor,  and  free  from  all  party  bias,  two  entire  columns,  terminating  with: 
"Mr.  S.'s  observations  deserve  a  careful  consideration  from  all  friends  of  the  University  and 
from  all  friends  of  learning  in  California." 


18 

upon  subjects  connected  with  agriculture  likely  t:>  beof  most  value  and 
interest  to  the  people  of  the  locality.  In  these  lectures  it  shall  be  his 
care  to  disseminate  such  information  derived  from  study,  from  observa- 
tion, from  correspondence  and  general  experience,  as  will  be  of  piacti- 
cal  use  to  the  farmers,  fruit-growers  and  stock-raisers,  having  special 
reference  to  the  imparting  of  reliable  information  upon  the  nature  and 
best  tnode  of  culture  of  such  new  crops, fruits,  trees  and  vines,  (and  the 
preparation  of  their  products  for  market]  as  may  be  adapted  to  the  soil 
and  climate  of  California,  and  likely  to  increase  the  productive  re- 
sources of  the  State. 

His  course  of  lectures  shall  embrace  the  branches  for  which   instruc- 
tion is  now  provided  in  the  University,  viz: 


Botany, 

Rural  Economy, 

Meteorology, 

Diseases  of  Animals  and  Plants, 

Forestry.* 


Agriculture  proper, 

Agricultural  Chemistry, 

Zoology, 

Horticulture, 

Geology, 

Veterinary  Science, 

And  all  kindred  subjects,  it  being  the  intention  of  the  Regents  by  the 
course  here  adopted  to  transfer  the  Agricultural  College  of  the  Univer- 
sity from  the  closet  to  the  field,  and  make  its  instruction  of  practical 
value  to  the  people  of  the  State.  These  lectures  shall  be  free,  and  pub- 
lic notice  shall  be  given  of  the  time  and  plac^  of  their  delivery. 

During  his  tour  through  the  state,  the  Professor  of  Agriculture  shall 
carefully  examine  the  growing  c/*ops,  study  their  culture,  noting  partic- 
ularly any  exceptional  influences  calculated  to  improve  or  injure  them, 
and  communicate  the  result  of  his  observations  in  his  lectures. 

HE  shall  take  special  pains  to  COLLECT  STATISTICS  of  the  crops, 
flocks  and  herds  of  the  State,  and  shall  REPORT  them  from  time  to  time 
for  publication. 

HE  shall  open  communication  with  ALL  local  agricultural  societies, 
and  as  far  as  is  possible  PLACE  HIS  SERVICES  AT  THEIR  DISPOSAL  and 
deliver  his  instructions  under  their  auspices.' 

HE  shall— one  of  the  Professors  at  the  University  is  said  to  have  add- 
ed, when  this  interminable  list  of  duties  was  read  before  the  assembled 
colleagues,  next  morning  from  the  Alia — he  shall,  throroughly  con- 
vinced as  we  are  that  the  adjective  "impossible"  is  not,  never  was,  or 
ever  will  be  found  in  any  of  our  dictionaries,  arm  himself  with  a  horn 
of  the  most  formidable  size  and  powerful  tone,  procurable  in  the 
United  States,  and  from  the  cottage  porch,  before  the  assembled  house- 
hold and  laborers  of  each  far  m,  drive  from  its  boundary,  now  and  for 
ever,  all  gophers,  skunks,  bats,  rats  and  mice,  and  all  other  thieving 
vermin— winged,  quadruped  or  biped— by  a  three  times  repeated  thun- 
dering Toot!  Toot!  Toot! 

*  Of  these  branches  Zoology,  Geology.  Botany  and  Meteorology,  do  not  even  belong  to  the 
Professor's  department. 


19 

The  devoted  Professor  of  Agriculture,  who,  up  to  that  day,  had  done 
more  to  keep  the  University  prominently  and  favorably  before  the  pub- 
lic than  acy  one  else  in  its  connection,  had  been  peeping  o'er  the  read- 
ers shoulders,  and  with  every  new  batch,  in  the  endless  string  of  duties, 
had  risen  higher  on  his  feet,  and  the  ludicrous  finale  caused  him  to 
split  his  sides  with  tremendous  bursts  of  contagious  laughter  that  set 
going  all  the  Professors  around,  andsomuch  deranged  their  equilibrium 
at  to  make  it  impossible  for  them  (some  wag  informs  us)  fully  to  res- 
tore it  to  this  day/' 

The  entire  faculty,  including  the  Professor  of  Agriculture, 
agreed  that  nothing  short  of  half  a  dozen  lecturers  with  a  corps 
of  assistants,  could  do  justice  to  and  execute  that  magnificently 
conceived  resolution,  so  as  to  warrant  any  practical  and  benefi- 
cent results. 

Prof.  Carr  consequently  could  not  attend  to  the  hundredfold 
specialties  of  the  interminable  resolution,  some  of  which,  ac- 
cording to  Articles  66  and  67  of  the  organic  law,  fell  within  the 
range  of  the  secretary's  duties,  whose  time,  however,  was  great- 
ly absorbed  by  the  duties  imposed  upon  him  by  the  second  sec- 
retaryship, most  congenial,  indeed,  as  has  already  been  in- 
ferred, with  those  imposed  by  California's  crowning  fabric  of 
the  educational  sanctum. 

The  Professor,  ever  indefatigable,  delivered  in  neighboring 
towns  and  accessible  parts  of  the  country,  lectures  on  agricultu- 
ral and  other  topics  of  general  interest,  as  he  informed  us  in  his 
communication  to  the  Board,  endeavoring  especially  to  make  the 
object  and  scope  of  the  University  and  its  practical  value  to  the 
State  more  thoroughly  understood.  To  expect  anything  beyond 
this  from  one  instructor  who  had  to  attend  to  the  duties  of  his  chair 
at  home  would  be  inconsistent.  The  Professor  has,  however,  not 
become  reconciled  with  the  idea  of  continuing  to  be  THE  ideal 
traveling  agricultural  college,  fle  and  the  people  of  Califor- 
nia are  desirous  that  we  no  longer  tarry  in  conforming  to  the 
law  and  establish  THE  Real  Stationary  College  of  Agriculture 
with  all  its  prescribed  appendages — at  Berkeley,  where  the 
teaching  of  scientific  and  practical  agriculture  at  present 
amounts  to  absolutely  nothing,  and  that  of  agricultural  chemist- 
ry, without  the  soil  and  its  products,  to  no  more  than  does  the 


20 

teaching  of  general  chemistry,  without  chemicals,  from — a  text 
book. 

I  will  now,  in  brief,  place  before  the  reader  conclusive  evi- 
dence of  the  gratifying  results  which  have  attended  the  founding 
of  agricultural  schools  and  academies  in  Europe,  especially  in 
Germany,  to  which  I  shall  add  proof  of  their  having  been  upon 
the  whole  successful  in  the  United  States,  and,  furthermore, 
that  the  statement  reported  to  have  been  made  before  the  Leg- 
islature by  the  President  of  the  University,  to  the  effect  that  ag- 
ricultural colleges  have  disappointed  the  hopes  of  their  friends, 
or  even  proved  a  failure,  is  based  on  error,  or  must  be  a  miscon- 
struction of  the  President's  meaning,  if  he  at  all  made  the 
statement. 

The  question  of  agricultural  schools  has  in  our  day  risen  to  be 
a  momentous  question  in  the  domain  of  rural  economy.  In  Ger- 
many the  potent  and  beneficent  influence  of  such  schools  is  re- 
cognized more  and  more  from  year  to  year;  their  friends  in  that- 
country,  at  least,  increase  in  number .  An  effort  to  found  agri- 
cultural schools,  although  not  successful,  was  made  by  an  Abbe 
Rosier,  in  France,  as  far  back  as  1775.  The  first  that  was  suc- 
cessfully operated  was  established  at  Hofwyl,  in  the  German 
speaking  portion  of  Switzerland.  It  flourished  30  years  and  ed- 
ucated 3,000  farmers.  Other  schools  subsequently  flourished 
in  Germany,  Francs  and  various  countries  of  Europe.  Prior  to 
the  advent  of  Liebig,  scientific  instruction  was,  however,  most 
imperfectly  developed  and  understood.  Through  his  teaching 
it  became  lucidly  clear  that  practical  and  scientific  Instruction  In 
husbandry  m  mt  be  closely  united  ;  that  without  the  latter  all  in- 
struction leads  to  unsatisfactory  results.  Liebig  was  the  first 
who  in  hard  and  bitter  words  indicated  that  a  continuous 
'plunder-culture" 'of  the  land  must  end  in  its  complete  exhaus- 
tion. He  not  only  pointed  out  the  evil,  but  also  the  ways  and 
means  enabling  the  husbandman  to  return  to  the  soil  what  in  a 
given  period  is  withdrawn  from  it,  so  as  to  maintain  an  equal 
degree  of  fertility.  His  first  work  on  chemistry  as  applied  to 
agriculture  appeared  in  1862 ;  his  chief  work  on  the  natural  laws 
of  field-culture  in  1865.  English  and  French  scientists,  such 


21 

as  Moll,  Sinclair  and  Low — Payan  and  Buchard,  soon  followed, 
corroborating  the  correctness  of  his  views  and  researches.  As 
the  elevation  of  industry  properly  dates  from  the  time  only 
when  it  called  science  to  its  aid,  so  agriculture  rapidly  ad- 
vanced in  the  road  to  progress,  only  then,  when  empiricism  and 
a  practice  sanctified  by  hereditary  custom,  refused  no  longer  to 
take  science  as  a  helpmate.  What  the  numerous  technical 
schools  in  Germany  are  with  respect  to  industry  and  the  me- 
chanic arts,  are  the  agricultural  schools  and  academies  or 
colleges  to  husbandry  and  field  culture.  Germany  alone  had  in 
1864,  some  fifty  of  these  schools,  high  and  low,  of  which  23 
were  located  in  Prussia.  It  has  now  above  150.  In  many  of 
these  some  500  students  receive  instruction.  France  has  some 
75,  and  Kussia  68.  All  other  European  countries  possess  them, 
their  number  being  proportionate  to  population,  while  in  Eng- 
land, where  the  soil  yet  chiefly  belongs  to  feudal  barons,  there 
are  but  5.  Space  forbids  a  description  of  their  organism  and 
working  details.  The  scientific  and  practical  College  of  Agri- 
culture and  Horticulture  at  Hohenheim  in  Germany  may  serve 
as  an  illustration  of  their  effective  completeness.  It  has  a  farm 
of  825  acres,  a  forest  of  5,000  acres,  botanic  garden,  arboretum, 
geological,  mineralogical  and  botanical  collections,  collections 
of  woods,  seeds,  resins,  models  of  instruments  of  tillage  and 
chemical  larboratory,  meadows,  irrigation,  culture  of  flax  and 
the  vine,  stock-farms  and  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  imple- 
ments, etc. 

The  United  States  have  not  been  behind  in  imitating  the 
Agricultural  and  Technical  schools  of  Germany.  The  depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  at  Washington  in  its  last  collection  of  the 
reports  from  the  various  States  of  the  Union,  in  which  Califor- 
nia has  nothing  to  show,  gives  thirty-two  colleges  as  being  in  ac- 
tive operation,  attended  by  more  than  3,000  students.  The 
State  of  Illinois  has  an  experimental  farm  of  212  acres  with  the 
University  buildings,  and  a  model  farm  of  400  acres  one  mile 
distant .  Kansas  numbers  more  than  217  students  in  its  Agri- 
cultural college  ;  Maryland,  147  ;  Minnesota,  117  ;  Massachu- 
setts, 171.  Diminutive  Delaware  has  a  farm  of  70  acres,  and 


38  students.  Cornell  University  reports  207  in  1872.  It  was 
Goldwin  Smith,  the  English  Professor  at  Cornell,  who  regaled 
his  hearers  during  a  recent  visit  to  England,  by  stating  that  in 
the  agricultural  department  at  Cornell  the  daily  severe  manual 
labor  unfits  the  students  for  higher  scientific  studies.  If  this 
be  so,  the  aim  of  agricultural  colleges  is  little  understood  at 
Cornell.  Their  aim  is  to  develop  scientific  and  practical  farm- 
ers, not  farm  laborers,  equally  as  much  as  it  is  the  aim  of  tech- 
nical schools  to  educate  scientific  and  practical  mechanics,  not 
day  laborers.  While  in  agricultural  colleges,  to  theoretic  and 
scientific  investigation  has  to  be  added  instructive  labor  in  the 
laboratory  and  the  field,  the  student  is  not  supposed  to  absorb 
his  time  by  the  mechanical  non-instructive  labor  of  ploughing, 
harrowing,  hoeing,  etc .  Cornell  should  not,  in  this  respect,  be 
imitated  in  California,  if  the  Professor  have  presented  matters 
in  their  real  light.  Our  University  cannot  be  expected — as  one 
of  the  Eegents  correctly  observed — to  educate  journeymen 
blacksmiths,  etc.,  nor  can  it  be  expected  to  train  farm  hands. 

Congress  not  alone  and  State  Legislators  have  been  and  still 
are,  the  friends  of  agricultural  schools,  private  individuals  also 
have  been  and  still  are  so.  In  evidence  of  this  I  refer  to  the 
institution  founded  by  and  bearing  the  name  of  the  first  named 
of  the7  Baltimore  trinity  of  philanthropists,  John  McDonough, 
George  Peabody  and  John  Hopkins.  The  institution  was 
opened  in  October  last,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city  of  Baltimore 
endowed  with  five  hundred  thousand  dollars .  Instruction  du- 
ring a  course  of  four  years  is  gratis,  embracing  all  that  is  need- 
ed to  elevate  cultured,  scientific  and  practical  farmers.  The  in- 
mates are  besides  fed  and  clad,  and  on  leaving  the  institution 
their  future  welfare  is  to  be  watched  with  paternal  care. 

Having  demonstrated  that  agricultural  schools  and  colleges 
are  in  active  and  successful  operation,  both  in  Europe  and 
America  ;  having  observed  the  wanton  destruction  of  fertility 
in  the  still  virgin  soil  of  California,  through  ignorant,  unscien- 
tific and  wasteful  cultivation ;  being  besides  convinced  that  the 
agricultural  interest  is  the  chief  interest  of  the  State — I  should 


23 

deem  it  undutiful,  nay,  dishonorable  in  the  people  of  Califor- 
nia, and  the  Legislature — still  in  session — were  they  to  permit 
the  wheat-sheaves  ornamenting  the  agricultural  college  building 
to  remain,  there  alone  an  unnatural,  a  mocking  symbol,  a  re- 
minder of  indifference,  neglect,  and  disregard  of  law! 

Nothing  short  of  a  school  combining  practical  instruction  in 
the  field  with  the  theoretical  and  scientific  education  in  the  lec- 
ture room  and  laboratory,  will  do.  An  one-sided  way  must 
lead,  as  it  has  done  everywhere,  to — failure  ! 

The  department  of  mechanic  arts,  it  would  seem,  were  better 
located  in  San  Francisco,  the  business  and  manufacturing  cen- 
ter of  the  State. 


With  a  few  short  remarks  on  education  in  general,  and  the 
mode  of  imparting  knowledge  in  our  schools,  high  and  low, 
I  will  conclude. 

Education  is  still  too  much  regarded  in  the  narrow  sense  in 
which  it  aims  at  the  acquisition  and  possession  of  the  accumu- 
lated knowledge  of  the  past  and  present.  It  has  a  more  exalted 
purpose,  that  of  improving  and  enlarging  the  inherited  treas- 
ures by  the  cultivated  exertion  of  our  own  inward  powers  ;  its 
aim  is  the  individuum,  the  growth  to  knowledge  not  alone,  but 
to  skill ;  knowledge  is  the  means  to  an  end,  not  the  end  itself. 
Every  topic  of  instruction  must  become  an  exercise  for  the  re- 
flective powers  and  learning  facilitated  by  interesting  the  stu- 
dent in  self- thinking  and  self -activity.  With  our  text-book 
system  of  memorizing,  our  sons  and  daughters  leave  school 
having  learnt  everything  except  to  think.  The  students  of  the 
University  would  indeed  learn  more,  know  more  and  do  more, 
were  they  guided  to  self-research  ;  were  they  made  to  studv 
nature  more  than — books.  How  this  mere  memorizing  process 
—this  pouring  in  of  undigested  knowledge,  instead  of  drawing 
out  and  developing  the  inward  faculties  and  powers,  leading  to 
digested  knowledge,  and  creating  thinkers — should  have  found 
its  way  among  a  free,  independent,  self-relying,  republican 
people,  is  an  anomaly  the  enormity  of  which  the  mind  can 


24 

hardly  realize.  Durfng  the  early  times  of  the  republic  the  ab- 
sence of  trained  teachers  was  an  acceptable  apology  for  the 
preservation  of  the  system  ;  there  is  no  tenable  justification 
now.  Have  we  to  assign  to  that  system  the  superficiality  in 
learning  which  is  at  home  and  abroad  regarded  to  be  a  standing 
opprobrium  attached  to  our  schools?  Have  we  to  ascribe  to  it 
the  number  of  mental  dyspeptics  in  the  place  of  thinkers  ?  Does 
spring  from  it  the  implicit  faith  in  traditional  authority,  the 
aversion  to  self-inquiry  in  matters  of  religion,  the  empiricism 
aud  blind  dogmatism  which  characterize^  Protestant  America 
more  than  any  other  nation  j  Protestant  and  protesting  against 
the  return  of  medieval  darlmess?  Observing  and  thinking  minds, 
tried  educators,  such  as  Agassiz,  Higginson,  Herbert  Spencer, 
etc.,  have  found  and  publicly  declared  what  has  also  fallen 
within  the  range  of  my  own  experience,  that  however  lavishly 
munificent  the  people  may  be  in  the  general  development  of  our 
public  school  system,  there  can  be  no  change  for  the  better  in  the 
mode  of  imparting  knowledge,  so  long  as  teaching  is  not  elevated 
to  the  dignity  of  a  profession  ;  so  long  as  training  schools  do  not 
largely  multiply  ;  so  long  as  the  teacher  only  hears  a  class ;  so 
long  as  the  text-book,  an  oft  ill^-adapted,  imperfect  book,  super- 
sedes the  teacher ;  so  long  as  the  main  text-book  is  not  located 
above  his  brows ;  so  long  as  he  does  not  hold  within  his  grasp 
the  fruit  of  all  who  have  thought  upon  his  theme,  and  searched 
and  found  and  spreads  it  out  before  the  hungry  class  of  his  own 
creation,  with  the  results  of  his  own  thoughts,  his  own  labor, 
ever  fresh  and  new ;  so  long  in  fine  as  he  is  not  the  element  from 
whom  all  springs,  the  animating  and  creating  spirit  of  the  school 
room  or  the  lecture  hall — the  thinker,  the  professional  teacher, 
lecturer,  professor. 

With  such  instructors  our  University,  (we  may  congratulate 
ourselves  that  it  already  possesses  some})  and  the  public  schools 
throughout  the  country,  will  rise  high,  so  high  as,  or  even 
higher  than  the  famous  public  schools,  agricultural  and  techni- 
cal academies,  and  the  renowned  seats  of  learning  in  the  Fath- 
erland which  gave  a  Humboldt  to  the  world,  an  Agassiz  to 
America. 


25 

With  the  powers  of  the  Faculty  enlarged,  with  a  fit  superin- 
tending Board  and  with  confidence  restored,  we  shall,  as  time 
rolls  on,  see  arise  college  after  college,  filled  with  our  sons  and 
daughters,  all  thirsting  for  knowledge  and  for  skill,  near  the  fair 
mountain  range  of  Contra  Costa,  where  the  rugged  hill  and  maid- 
en plain  in  wedlock  joined,  gave  birth  to  geutle  slopes,  trimmed 
with  winding  silver  brooks,  o'erhung  with  foliage  evergreen. 
We  shall  see  thence  go  forth  the  philosopher  and  scientist  to  di- 
vulge the  secrets  of  humanity  and  nature;  the  tutored  mechanic, 
to  utilize  the  powers  in  iron  and  in  steam  ;  the  learned  agri_ 
culturist,  to  make  the  earth  give  forth  her  bounty ;  the  fearless 
and  erudite  miner,  to  draw  the  boundless  treasures  from  her  bo- 
som. 

There,  at  Berkeley,  the  renowned  University  of  California, 
a  ramified  temple  of  wisdom,  its  beacon  lights  high  aloft,  will 
frown  down  ignorance  and  error,  empiricism,  bigotry  and  dogma- 
tism, as  the  battlements  of  our  country's  forts  frowned  down  our 
country's  foes  ;  its  professors,  instructors,  students,  one  and  all, 
zealous  and  enthusiastic  in  furthering  the  never  faltering  advance- 
ment of  the  reverenced  Alma  Mater . 


Free  thought  honestly  expressed,  being  the  birthright  of  a  free 
people,  he  whb  in  our  country  launches  upon  the  world  his  criti- 
cism of  public  men  and  matters  under  an  anonymous  garb  or  non 
de plume,  is,  I  repeat  it  here,  either  a  coward  or  a  knave.  Thus, 
I  sign  my  humble  name,  as  I  always  do  and  a  freeman  always 
should,  in  full. 

GTJSTAVUS.  SCHULTE. 

OAKLAND,  Cal.,  March  21st,  1874. 


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